Ghosts are made of neutrinos?

[Dmarie]

I was watching a TV program called Paranormal something or the other and a so called expert said that since ghosts can walk through wall they could not be made of atoms. He said they would have to be made of neutrinos.

Comments?

I think you're referring to an episode of American Paranormal which aired on the National Geographic Channel. A team of scientists investigated the Eastern State Penitentiary and this team wanted to test certain hypothesis for possibe explanations regarding the paranormal claims reported there.

One member of the team, a theoretical astrophysicist, initially proposed that ghosts may be comprised of neutrinos. Because neutrinos do not have electrons, they can pass through solid matter just as alleged ghosts or apparitions do. But the problem is, without electrons, neutrinos cannot emit light or electromagnetic radiation. So if ghosts are made of neutrinos, "ghost hunters" would have a problem detecting them visually or their activity by video/photos and EMF detectors.

 

[Brian-M]

I see dead people...

The latest in ghost-hunting equipment. Yours for just $38.9 Million.

 

[Brian-M]

On a more serious note, what is the energy/force that makes our brain work. The neurons in your brain 'fire' or move. This movement, indicates 'alive'...when it stops, we rekon 'dead'...

The whatever is moving...what 'it' made out of? I mean, is it electricity?

Does it have a heat signature?

Neurons communicate with each-other chemically. Internally, an electric pulse (generated by chemical energy) travels along the axon. Neurons produce small amounts of heat and tiny electromagnetic fields as they function.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

I"m kinda bummed that "cream cheese orc" yields no results in google.

Don't worry. It will, now that it's been said.

A

 

[ynot]

"Ghosts are made of neutrinos?"

Nah . . . Neutrinos are made of ghosts.

 

[Dancing David]

I always struggled with the physical properties of ghosts:

you can see and hear them (Woooooooo), so they must take part in the electromagnetic interaction to some extent

Boom chakalaka, boom chakalaka is what they should say.

 

[shemp]

It would also explain the complete lack of any actual ghosts here on Earth, as they'd be flying off at the speed of light.

Maybe they're "tired neutrinos"?

 

[Cainkane1]

That was it. That was the program. Ghosts don't exist but the world would be very interesting if they did.

 

[idoubtit]

I'll second exactly what Dmarie said - I saw the same show. It was actually a nice takedown by the science side. The best part was how noticeable the infrasound was. They used an infrasound generator that made people feel depressed and uneasy but the suggestion was that the building or area itself may have natural infrasound present that makes people react. (For more, read Vic Tandy's papers on the web.)

Of course, they had to end with some mystery so ruined the whole foundation of rationality.

I'm really taken by the idea that environmental factors + individual perception influence people's interpretation of an experience.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I was watching a TV program called Paranormal something or the other and a so called expert said that since ghosts can walk through wall they could not be made of atoms. He said they would have to be made of neutrinos.

First, they'd have to prove ghosts exist before worrying over what they're made of.

Second, you still couldn't walk through walls if you were made of neutrinos. If the wall is transparent to you (that is, you can interpenetrate the wall), then the floor would be the same.

There's also the problem of photons somehow reflecting off neutrinos so that the ghost is visible. . . .

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

And, I suppose it would be too much to expect this "expert" to outline other examples of neutrinos organizing into something else and how this happens?

I bet his answer would be "its quantum".

And no problem with them remaining coherently organized over long periods of time.

Does radioactive decay produce ghosts, or are they not made of electron neutrinos?

~~ Paul

 

[GanipGnop]

Ghosts Are Made Of Ignorance

l always thought ghosts were made of fairy farts and BS. This story reminds me of the Startrek TNG episode where Geordie and Ensign Ro become "out of phase" with the universe during a transporter accident while helping a Romulan vessel. They can walk through walls but magically they don't fall through the deck they also ride in a shuttle and it doesn't leave them behind floating in space. It turns out a Romulan crewman is also out of phase I forget how it happened but he gets on the Enterprise and chases Ensign Ro "through" the ship he catches her and is about to kill her when Geordie runs in and pushes the Romulan out of the ship into space. Up until that point it never occurred to me what's keep them from falling out of the ship into space.

 

[MattusMaximus]

That would explian why people never see one, since neutrinos don't not interact with the EM force.

Which would display a rather interesting inconsistecy in the claims of ghost hunters since they say that EMF meters can "detect" ghosts

ETA: oops missed it... what Dmarie said

 

[schrodingasdawg]

Does radioactive decay produce ghosts, or are they not made of electron neutrinos?

Well, either ghosts undergo flavor oscillations and are sometimes made of electron neutrinos, or they are made up of mass eigenstate neutrinos and thus have some probability of being found to be made of electron neutrinos.

 

[sphenisc]

And, I suppose it would be too much to expect this "expert" to outline other examples of neutrinos organizing into something else and how this happens?

I bet his answer would be "its quantum".

Then it woud be a Faddeev–Popov ghost^WP.

 

[tsig]

Maybe they're "tired neutrinos"?

Quantum neutrinos. If it ain't got quantum it ain't got nothin'.

As in:

ghosts are made of quantum neutrinos and therefore can exist in a bi-state both in and not in this world. We see them not with the eyes of reason but by the rules of quantum equivalencies.Ghosts cannot be expected to follow the normal laws of time-space limitations but to exhibit exactly those characteristics that we see.

ETA: further investigation is required. send money.

 

[likelystory]

Neutrinos are affected by gravity and almost never interact directly with matter. That means all of the ghosts created on Earth's surface have either fallen to the center of the Earth or have fallen with enough speed to pass through the core, out other the other side and fly off into space.

How would the neutrinos continue to pass through the core if affected by gravity? Doesn't gravity act central to house the neutrinos indefinetly?

 

[Fredrik]

How would the neutrinos continue to pass through the core if affected by gravity? Doesn't gravity act central to house the neutrinos indefinetly?

If you throw a rock (or anything else) up in the air with a speed of about 11 km/s or more, it will never fall down again. The speed it needs to have to never come back is called "escape velocity". Neutrinos move close to the speed of light, which is (exactly) 299792.458 km/s, almost 30000 times greater than escape velocity.

But the real problem would be for the neutrinos to stick together to form a body, since they don't interact with each other either (at least not significantly).

 

[Brian-M]

If you throw a rock (or anything else) up in the air with a speed of about 11 km/s or more, it will never fall down again.

You're ignoring the effect of the atmosphere. In reality you'd have to throw it a lot faster to compensate for wind-resistance. (But as most neutrinos never interact with even a single molecule of air, your point is still valid.)

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

Actually, the phenomenon usually seen as a ghost is a floating phosphorescent unicorn fart. Unicorn farts can drift right through walls... When one sees a presumed ghost, one can be sure that an invisible unicorn is somewhere nearby. You can tell by the creepy hair-raising goosebumpy feeling that you get when being watched by invisible horny equines.

A